CNBC Exclusive: X CEO Linda Yaccarino 8/9/23

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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Sara Eisen (0:33)

Sara Eisen live today from X's corporate New York headquarters.

Joining me exclusively in her first TV interview since taking on the new role is X-Corp CEO, Linda Yaccarino. Linda, thank you for having us here today.

Linda Yaccarino (0:45)

Sara, thank you for being here. Thank you for visiting us today.

It's so exciting and to be on Squawk on the Street is a real privilege. So thank you.

Sara Eisen (0:55)

Well, we're glad to talk to you. We have a lot of questions and I think we should start with the most recent major announcement, which is the company now being called X.

Why did you do this rebrand?

Linda Yaccarino (1:08)

Well, first of all, I think we need to rewind a little bit and remind ourselves that Elon has been talking about X, the everything app for a very long time. Even when we announced that I was joining the company, I was joining the company to partner with Elon to transform Twitter into X, the everything app. So, you know, also at the heart of the rebrand, X, we need to keep our minds open that it's developing into this global town square that is fueled by free expression where the public gathers in real time.

And I want to stop on that for a second, because in real time is what's most important about the vibrancy of X and how people interact with it. And now it's all in one seamless interface. So think about what's happened since the acquisition, right? Experiences and evolution into long form video and articles. Subscribe to your favorite creators who are now earning a real living on the platform, which is so exciting. You look at video, and you look at soon you'll be able to make video chat, calls without having to give your phone number to anyone on the platform. And then payments.

Payments, there's been a lot of talk about that. Payments between you and a friend, between you and one of your creators.

So there's been a lot going on in the rebrand represented. Really a liberation from Twitter. A liberation that allowed us to evolve past a legacy mindset and a thinking. And to reimagine how everyone, everyone on spaces who's listening, everybody who's watching, around the world, it's going to change how we congregate, how we entertain, how we transact all in one platform.

Sara Eisen (3:11)

But Linda, I understand that you're trying to present something new and a bigger idea, but you're a brand person.

Twitter was a strong brand. You have tens of millions of active users. Even Meta, with the name change, didn't change the name of Facebook. Some people think it's like J&J changing Band-Aid.

Linda Yaccarino (3:29)

Well, I have to say, I think we could spend some time to talk about what bold ambition brings.

Bold ambition that the team at X has delivers great experiences and great new products.

And if you stay Twitter or you stay whatever your previous brand is, change tends to be only incremental. And you get graded by a legacy report card. And at X, we think about what's possible, not the incremental change of what can't be done. And if you think about the velocity of product changes, infrastructure improvements that have happened over the last 10 months, it kind of answers the question of why rebrand? And the exciting thing about it is the user sentiment on the platform. And it's only been three weeks.

But the user sentiment on the platform, three out of four, very successful, three out of four in our user community feel good. A lot of them feel great about the rebrand because they live with us. It's habitual. They know what we're about. They know where we're going. But what we found out was even more exciting, which was there's much more of a broader conversation going on, is what does this kind of clear canvas allow us to do? And there's broader conversations going on about new products, about long form video, about payments. So it's actually, we're believing in our user community, and we're not limited by that legacy thinking.

Sara Eisen (5:15)

You mentioned that it has always been Elon's idea, and he's been talking about this for a while, which does raise the question about your role as CEO and whether he shares control.